Four staffers for former Rep. Thaddeus McCotter were charged with violating election laws Thursday for an alleged “cut-and-paste job” to get the Michigan Republican enough signatures to land on the ballot.

While McCotter wasn’t charged with any crime, Michigan’s GOP attorney general, Bill Schuette, repeatedly ripped him for failing to keep his staff members in line.

“The district got stiffed. People got stiffed. Public service is not a game. This is not frat boys go to Washington. This is not a garage band in D.C.,” Schuette, a former member of Congress, said at a press conference in Detroit, later adding: “In the end, Congressman McCotter is responsible for the conduct and the misconduct of the people in his employ.”

The four staffers, all of whom worked in the congressman’s Livonia, Mich., office, included District Director Paul Seewald and Deputy District Director Don Yowchuang. A scheduler, Lori Anne O’Brady, and a district representative, Mary Melissa Turnbull, were also charged.

Yowchuang faces 17 charges, including six felonies: five counts of election law forgery and one count of conspiracy. Seewald faces 10 charges, including a single felony charge of conspiracy. Turnbull faces a conspiracy charge and a single misdemeanor charge. O’Brady faces five misdemeanor charges. All the misdemeanor charges are for falsely signing nominating petitions.

It was “a cut-and-paste job that would make an elementary school art teacher cringe,” Schuette said.

In a report released by Schuette’s office, investigators conclude that a “dysfunctional congressional staff … had completely lost its moral compass.” Staffers spent more time cooking up schemes to get around the requirements than they spent actually gathering the 1,000 signatures required to get McCotter’s name on the ballot, investigators claim.

Schuette did not rule out charging McCotter in the future, but said there wasn’t any “specific, direct evidence of his involvement.”

McCotter released a statement thanking Schuette for his investigation.

“I thank the Attorney General and his office for their earnest, thorough work on this investigation, which I requested, and their subsequent report,” McCotter said. “For my family and I, this closure commences our embrace of the enduring blessings of private life.”